This invention relates in general to the field of communications and information management systems and more particularly to an improved network-based voice messaging and multimedia communications and directory system and method of operation.
Currently available communications facilities include voice communication, electronic mail communication, facsimile communication and video communication. These communications facilities are augmented by storage and retrieval facilities such as voice mail facilities, bulletin board services and the like. These various communications facilities have largely been operated on independent platforms, interconnected into private networks, and through independent and disparate channels of communication.
While local area network (LAN) based mail systems such as cc: Mail or large private electronic mail providers such as MCI Mail have facilitated some networking capability in electronic mail content, other communications facilities such as voice messaging and facsimile transmissions are largely localized facilities. For example, typical messaging systems are constrained within a single organization such as a company or at the broadest within a single local exchange carrier facility. In light of the largely local nature of messaging facilities and the incompatibility of proprietary messaging protocols, there has been little effort to supply large scale integrated network functionality to these communications services. In addition, most of these facilities are limited to a single media such as only voice, only electronic mail, or only facsimile transmissions.
Additionally, in particular, voice messaging systems have not provided large scale integrated network functionality due to the following limitations:
1) Their terminal equipment is usually a telephone, which can only communicate with audio signaling such as Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signals.
2) The methods of addressing are frequently short, fixed length numerical addresses and currently deployed numbering schemes.
3) Messages are typically large, spanning several minutes of digitized analog audio signals.
4) Identity confirmation of the sender or recipient must be a spoken identification such as a mailbox number or a name.
5) Directory type functions such as lookup can not be done with ASCII type inputs but again are restricted to DTMF inputs.
6) Communications protocols associated with voice messaging systems do not provide the facilities necessary to request or specify special services such as media translation, subject matter identification and routing, and the like.
A further complication in the growth of existing messaging systems and networks is the parallel increase in the complexity of managing the directory and addressing information associated with the network. Existing directory facilities are usually limited to a single system or, at most, a single organization. It is difficult, if not impossible with current systems, to acquire and use effectively directory information from other facilities as the integrated system increases in complexity as other facilities are added to the network. These large scale directories are more complicated to deal with in voice messaging systems due to the fact that any functionality, such as retrieval or lookup, provided to the user is restricted to DTMF inputs.
The isolated nature of present messaging systems provides for little standardization that may be used to effect the communications between disparate systems that must occur for effective networking of systems. As such, even messaging systems that are working in the same media, for example, two voice messaging systems, may be incapable of transferring information and messages between the systems due to the differences in the protocols used by the systems to process and transfer messages.
The management of message traffic in a networked environment creates additional concerns. As a message passes out of the control of a local messaging system and into the network, the responsibility for routing and delivery of the message must also pass to the network. This responsibility creates a need for a network with significant message tracking and management capabilities. The complexity of this management task grows enormously as the size of the network increases. This complexity further increases with voice messaging systems due to the addressing being numerical, and limited in size most often to the sender/recipient""s phone number or some other local private numbering plan, and to the size of the addressing fields in any of the local networking protocols.
Accordingly, a need has arisen for an integrated communications system which supplies network-based voice and multimedia communication facilities, and voice and multimedia directory services for communications including voice mail, electronic mail, facsimile transmissions, voice transmissions and video transmissions.
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a communications system is disclosed which substantially eliminates or reduces disadvantages associated with prior.systems and solutions and provides new solutions never before available. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a network-based voice and multimedia communications system is provided that comprises a plurality of network hubs operable to communicate with each other and with local messaging systems. The network hubs operate to receive messages in any media using any addressing convention from users either directly or through local messaging systems and to transmit the messages to other users whether located on local messaging systems or otherwise through the plurality of network hubs. This capability introduces a further complication for voice messaging systems that has yet to be encountered, in that voice messaging systems must be accessed and addressed utilizing standard DTMF signaling, numerical addressing and directory queries, and all within the native protocol of the user messaging system. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the network hubs are in constant communication with one another and constantly update a directory database which comprises user profiles for users of the communications system. The user profiles include identification confirmations associated with the users, such as a user""s spoken name, as well as other user-specific information. The communications system is operable to transmit an identification confirmation for a given user when another user of the communications system attempts to send a message to that user. For large scale integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces a further complication for user profiles including identification confirmation in that large distributed network directories must be built and maintained based upon numerical addressing and accessed utilizing DTMF signaling and the native protocols of the user messaging system.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the network hubs are operable to maintain and store user profiles that include user preferences associated with each user. The communications system of the present invention is operable to perform media translations such that messages received in one media can be translated into another media based upon the preference of the destination user as stored in the user""s profile information. For large scale integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces a further complication for media preference translation in that large distributed network directories must be built and maintained, based upon numerical addressing, that are accessed utilizing DTMF signaling and the native protocols of the user system.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the communications system supports mailing list distribution of messages. According to this embodiment of the present invention, the communications system receives a message which is addressed to a configurable mailing list comprising a plurality of destination addresses associated with users of the communications system. A mailing list agent may act as the sender of the message to distribute the message to each of the addresses in the mailing list. For large scale integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces a further complication for mailing list distribution, in that large distributed network directories must be built and maintained. These directories must be accessed and addressed utilizing standard DTMF signaling, numerical addressing and directory queries using the native protocol of the user system.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the network hubs maintain constant communication paths to one another such that the current state of the entire system is always available to each of the network hubs. In this manner, the location and status of each message within the communications system can be tracked and altered at any time after the message is created and before the message is delivered. For large scale integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces a further complication for accessing and update of user profile information, in that large distributed network directories must be built and accessed by the numerical addresses of the users of the messaging system.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, access is provided into the communications system for nonsubscribers of the communications system. In this manner, nonsubscribers can place messages or other communications directly onto the communications system for delivery. Further, facilities are also provided to deliver messages to nonsubscribers by the placement of conventional telephone calls, facsimile transmissions or E-mail transmissions to addresses which are provided by the message sender. A further complication to the communications system for providing nonsubscribers the capability to deposit and retrieve messages with voice messaging systems requires that the communications system support standard telephone interfaces, support numerical addressing, support only voice as the entry and exit media, supply identification confirmation in a spoken form such as the spoken name or spoken address, and provide directory services via DTMF signaling.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the network hubs may be used to distribute mass mailings of message traffic to selected users of the communications system. According to this embodiment, the user profiles associated with each user may contain information to allow each user to specify what types of information and from whom that user would like to receive and in what media and location the user would like to receive the information. For large scale integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces a further complication for distribution of mass mailings in that large distributed network directories must be built and accessed by the numerical addresses of the users of the communications system. According to one embodiment of the present invention, advertising and other commercial special interest information can be routed through the communications system for fees charged to the providers of the information. Users of the network are billed for ordinary messages routed through the network or for information services and may be given credit for each advertising message actually received to provide an incentive for users to receive the advertising message traffic. For large scale integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces a further complication for providing advertising and other commercial special interest information messaging services in that large distributed network directories must be built and maintained, based upon numerical addressing and that the messages are delivered utilizing DTMF signaling and the native protocols of the user""s messaging system.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the communications system is operable to deliver compound messages that comprise information in more than one media. For example, a single message may comprise both a voice message and a facsimile transmission. The communications system of the present invention is operable to route each portion of the message to an appropriate receiving facility associated with the destination user. For example, if a compound message is sent that comprises both a voice message and a facsimile message, the communications system of the present invention can deliver both messages together or split the two messages and deliver the voice message to a voice mailbox associated with the intended recipient and deliver the facsimile message to a fax destination associated with the intended recipient. The communications system of the present invention is also operable to translate messages received in one media to a media associated with the facilities of the destination user if the destination user does not have or does not desire delivery in certain media. For example, if a compound message is sent that comprises a voice message and an electronic mail transmission but the destination user only has a voice mailbox and a fax machine, the communications system of the present invention will translate the electronic mail message to a facsimile image and transmit the voice portion of the compound message to the voice mailbox and the translated portion to the fax destination. For large scale integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces a further complication for the processing of multimedia messages and the split routing that has yet to be developed, in that large distributed network directories must be built containing the numerical addresses for the different media destinations and accessed by the numerical addresses of the users of the communications system, and delivered utilizing DTMF signaling and the native protocols of the user system. Current technology and implementations of message addressing using short, fixed length numerical addresses are inadequate when trying to implement global addressing. The communications system of the present invention must supply additional information and mechanisms to its addressing schemes to create globally unique addressing from such short, fixed length numerical addresses.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the communications system is operable to translate messages between different languages to accommodate foreign-speaking users. If the message is not already a text message, the communications system of the present invention will use its media translating capability to place a message in a textual format such that an automated language translation of the text message can take place. The language-translated message can then be translated into the appropriate media for the destination user. For large scale integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces further complications for providing language translation, in that large distributed network directories must be built and maintained containing language preference information which must be accessed based upon numerical addressing and that the messages are delivered utilizing DTMF signaling and the native protocols of the user system.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the communications system is operable to coordinate password based, public and private key or other forms of messaging security to allow for secure transmission and receipt of messages through the communications system. For large scale integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces further complications for providing security features, in that large distributed network directories must be built and maintained containing the security access keys and methods which must be accessed based upon numerical addressing and that the messages and security keys are delivered utilizing DTMF signaling and the native protocols of the user system.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the communications system is operable to receive an address or other information associated with an intended recipient and to access user profile information associated with the intended recipient and retrieve addressing information associated with the intended recipient. As such, a sender of a message can use whatever information is known about an intended recipient of a message to identify the recipient and the communications system of the present invention will access and use the required addressing information appropriate for the identified recipient and the message being sent. For large scale integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces further complications for providing custom address translation, in that large distributed network directories must be built and maintained containing numerical address translation information which must be accessed based upon numerical addressing and that the messages are delivered utilizing DTMF signaling and the native protocols of the user system.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the communications system is operable to store configuration and directory information for messaging systems that are connected to network hubs used in the communications system of the present invention. Accordingly, if a messaging system is damaged or destroyed, the stored information can be used to reconfigure the repaired system or to initially configure a replacement system. Further, messages to be delivered to the damaged messaging system may be stored in the network hubs of the communications system of the present invention until the damaged messaging system is returned to service so that no messaging traffic is lost during the time required to repair or replace the damaged messaging system.
According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the communications system is operable to provide directory information to messaging systems that are connected to network hubs of the communications system of the present invention but which do not need to use the communications system of the present invention to actually deliver messages. According to this embodiment, a messaging system can present the communications system of the present invention with a request for directory information and the communications system will respond with routing information to enable the attached messaging system to deliver the message without the further intervention of the communications system of the present invention. For large scale integrated network functionality, interfacing with voice messaging systems introduces further complications for providing directory addressing services, in that large distributed network directories must be built and maintained containing address and delivery information which must be accessed based upon numerical addressing and that this information is delivered to the requesting system utilizing DTMF signaling and the native protocols of the user system.